Another Weekend - Friday, Dec. 4, 2009

We blink and it's here - another Friday. There was a cool breeze blowing today and if not in the sun, it was a bit chilly, but the temperature read 75. I can't figure out this weather. Tomorrow it is suppose to reach 80. We think this is still spring or early summer, like June at home. The really hot months are January and February, we are told.

Today was the last day of school, and there is a secondary school right around the corner from our office. The kids were beating drums, lighting firecrackers, throwing eggs, and throwing small pieces of cut up paper all over the streets. It was a mess walking home from work. They are out for three months. They go back the end of February or first of March sometime.

Elder Kroff worked all day on entering into the computer the money that the missionaries owe on supplies they have ordered that are not paid for by the mission. President Argyle doesn't want to collect money from the missionaries at the zone conferences -- too business like. He wants them to remain focused on what is being taught and not on money matters. He wants Elder Kroff to choose another avenue for collecting their debts, which will probably be on transfer day when they come to the mission office/church grounds to switch companions. So he has been working on getting that set up.

I completed preparing the ten packets for the leaving missionaries. So I can scratch that off my list. I still have all the ordering left to do which I will have to get done on Monday and Tuesday, if possible. At the end of next week I need to box up all the Christmas mail that has been arriving by the boat loads for the missionaries in the South. Their zone conferences after this next transfer won't happen until the first week of January, so the President said I could box up their mail and ship it with our carrier service so they will get it before Christmas. Of course, this means that I need to know who is possibly going South and who is coming back to the North, and that depends on when the President gets it all figured out.

I stand in awe of President Argyle and of all mission president everywhere. I just don't know how they keep up with everything. And once a round of transfers and conferences are over, it all starts over again a couple weeks later. I can certainly see why mission president are getting younger and younger. Our president was 38 when he received his call, almost 39. Now he is 41. That is unbelievably young to me. They are truly blessed to carry out a responsibility of this magnitude.

We didn't leave the office until almost 6:00 because we were each involved in things we wanted to clear up. When we got home, we decided we should just go shopping and get it done fearing that if we took a break and rested too long that we would lose interest in going out again. So we grabbed our shopping cart on wheels and headed to Disco.

There is a spot in front of the store that has some nice shrubs and flowers growing that caught my eye. This picture doesn't do it justice (double clicking to enlarge gives a better view). The long stemmed purple flowers were so unique and pretty. We should have just taken a close up shot of them. I had to wear my sweater to keep the chill off my arms. Crazy!! But at least the mosquitos weren't so plentiful today with the cooler temperature.

Our shopping cart was filled to overflowing, so we were grateful we had it. Even though there were some frozen items that should have gone quickly to the freezer, that didn't stop us from having our usual Friday night meal at McDonalds. The parking lot was full of teenagers still celebrating the end of the school year. We ate inside -- glad there was room.

We spent a quiet evening with me working on this entry and Rich beginning his update of the DVD that Sister Argyle gives the missionaries going home. He has a week and a half to get it done. Because of the Elder Bednar conference which altered the schedule of these last zone conferences, transfer week is just the week after next. That is a short turn around time. I will be glad to get things back on our normal schedule.